The Volvo World Match Play Championship

Nicolas Colsaerts has won The Volvo World Match Play Championship, in blustery conditions in Andalucia Spain, beating Graeme McDowell on the final green. Europe’s 2010 Ryder Cup hero Graeme McDowell, fought hard all the way, he levelled the contest three times on the front nine and twice halved a two-hole deficit after the turn. But it Nicolas’ day, he said of his victory;

“It means everything, where do I start? I felt that I had a pretty good shot at it last year in the same format, and I was a little disappointed not to get to the final. Two days ago I was in my room taking a nap thinking I was going to fly home. It means so much to be here, it’s fantastic. I played well in tough conditions. Wind like this, you know it’s going to be very difficult. Graeme McDowell, he’s won the US Open, so he’s used to playing in tough conditions. I knew that it was going to be a tough game in conditions like these.”

Nicolas, whose 316 yard average off the tee is longer than that of America’s number one bomber Bubba Watson, used that advantage well in the windy conditions, that were gusting over 30 mph at times. This win puts Nicolas into the top 50 in Official World Golf Ranking’s and also a Ryder Cup qualifying position.

Like this:

Defending champion Ian Poulter has been knocked out of the 2012 Volvo World Match Play Championship by Spaniard Alvaro Quiros, with what looks like an easy win at 4-3. Another Englishman,Justin Rose is also out, beaten by Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium by the same 4-3 score. In fact there are no Englishmen competing on day four of the tournament. Tom Lewis went down to Sergio Garcia, Richard Finch to Graeme McDowell and Robert Rock fell to Retief Goosen.

In the quarter finals G-Mac eased out local boy Sergio Garcia, and Paul Lawrie had an easy time of it despatching Retief Goosen 6 and 5. Brandt Snedeker and his borrowed clubs finally fell to Nicolas Colsaerts, while Alvaro Quiros lost to countryman Rafael Cabrera-Bello 3 and 1.

Paul Lawrie will now face Nicolas Colsaerts, and Rafael Cabrera-Bellow will play Graeme McDowell in the semi finals.

Rafael said of his match against Alvaro Quiros;

“I got to play with a friend in Alvaro. I’m very happy for me but I feel sorry for him, and he’s such a good guy. We had a good match today. I feel like I’m playing really good. This morning I recovered in a tough game, being two down with five to play, and now this afternoon, three down after nine and being able to win, I feel really proud of that. I have to play G Mac, and he has a lot of experience and is a Ryder Cup hero, so he’s obviously going to be a very, very tough guy to beat. I’m going to try my best and I’m playing good. Hopefully I can start as good as I did on my first two matches and if I don’t, I know I can come from behind and make it through. So we’ll just see what happens.”

Graeme thought he was pretty lucky to get past Sergio Garcia;

“It wasn’t exactly El Classico and I feel like I dodged a bullet there. I kind of resigned myself to the fact that I was going home, but sometimes you have to win ugly and sometimes to win you need what just happened to me. I count myself lucky.”

Sergio was disappointed but said he was not quite playing well enough;

I’m playing so badly this could happen at any moment. Making it to the quarter finals having played so badly means it was a good tournament. I had no good quality shots. He gave me some chances that I could not take and I have been saying it from the first day that I have not felt comfortable and I am not happy with my game.”